Anyone remember Alternity ?

[Aven]

Speaking of non-d20 games (someone was, a few min ago)...

...Does anyone still play Alternity, the sci-fi game put out a year or two before 3rd ed ? Man, that was one quality piece of work. The skill system made sense and the die step system was elegant, adding just the right amount of randomness. I thought it had a good cinematic feel while still being deadly enough that prolonged combat was certainly not desireable. The fact that it had standardized degrees of success for everything worked well, too. Last resorts were a nice touch, too. Also, I thought STAR*DRIVE was a well thought out setting, bringing us in a plausible way from 2000 to 2501. All the political tension was interesting. Am I the only one to have every played this thing ? If i'm not, please share some views/expierences with it. I know it never really got popular for some reason...

 

[Bard Lucian]

Yeah, I liked Alternity. I played Star*Drive and Dark*Matter a few times and had great fun with it. I've got (and intend to keep) a whole slew of Alternity resource books. My hope is I'll eventually find a group willing to play. I think it's a pity Wizards dumped that game.

 

[fenzer]

Yes I have. We played Dark Matter. I played a genetically engineered human with some wilder powers. He was a first generation prototype that escaped the lab before they terminated him. With later generations, he became a liability. He was on the run and had no exposure to life outside the lab, like a powerful child in an unfamiliar neighborhood. It was a lot of fun.

Ever since 3rd edition came out, we haven't gone back. Not that we don't want to, we just enjoy d20. Makes me hope d20 Modern works out.

I have just about every Alternity/Dark Matter book. I don't plan on letting them go any time soon.

 

[Florin]

I've played Alternity a couple of times, and I'm currently working on trying to convert Marion Zimmer Bradley's world of Darkover to an Alternity game so I can get my girlfriend to play.

I love the way it handles tech levels, and I feel confident that you could play a bow and arrow toting savage next to a laser pistol-slinging smuggler.

All in all, it it's a GREAT system.

 

[Trevalon Moonleirion]

You have a gaping hole in your chest and hey! That grenade just got caugh in it!

The title of this lovely little post comes from an Alternity fast-play my friends and I were in up at GenCon a few years ago--great fun. I loved Alternity--I never really got to play or GM it, but the books are great, and the whole system looks really nice. The only problem is that no one in my group, even me to an extent, wants to learn a whole new game system. I absolutely LOVE the Dark*Matter setting--it is one of the best RPG products I have ever purchased without a doubt. I'm really looking forward to d20 modern to try and convert D*M into it.

 

[Davelozzi]

I love Alternity and I think it's a real shame that Wizards dumped it. I played Star*Drive a few times and really had fun. Unfortunately, we had a very small group and everyone moved away from the area after just a couple of sessions.

I haven't got a chance to play Dark Matter yet but am planning on running a side campaign in a while when we need a break from D&D.

I think it's a great system for sci-fi and modern. I particularly like the character creation system with the four broad professions in an otherwise skill-based system. I also liked the simple yet elegant advancement/rewards system.

One of my players had always talked about running a Star Wars campaign but never liked WEG's D6 system. I ran an Alternity fast play game with him and successfully convinced him that this was the system to use. Then when I heard that WotC had acquired the rights to Star Wars, I figured it was all coming together perfectly, but alas they chose to do it D20 instead. No offense to D20 mind you, I just think Alternity would've been a better fit.

 

[baseballfury]

I liked Dark Matter very much. Good take on the whole modern day conspiracy genre. Star Drive was dreadfully boring though. Didn't much care for the rules system either, but I'd run Dark Matter with a different system in a heartbeat.

 

[Vhane]

I own most of the non-setting stuff for the Alternity system it was cool. Never got to play. Wanted to and still do.

 

[dagger]

Remeber it? Heck people still play it and still buy stuff for it. There is still a community on the net for it as well.

 

[Psion]

I am not playing it right now, but I would play it if the mood struck me and I thought my players would like it. It is really a pretty decent system, with some nice supplemental material. I think SKR did some of his best work for alternity.